Pepsi the Problem Puppy

At 5 am on Friday 23rd November, Pepsi woke up and proceeded to race bog laps around the house, off and on the bed, out her dog door and through the backyard and then back again for second, third and fourth laps.

The reason for the hijinks? I was too slow getting her breakfast.

At 5 pm I came home with her three types of meat Subway, I unwrapped it and blinked, in that split second she ‘stole’ it and scoffed the whole thing in seconds.

At 8 pm, her left ear started to droop and was a source of irritation for her. We gave her one of her backup much stronger pain meds to help settle her.

At 10.30 she lost coordination and paced in a daze.

By 11 pm when we gave her a second dose of her backup pain meds, it was apparent that Saturday (24th November) was going to be her last day.

She woke in relatively good spirits after her sleep, although she was only interested in laying down or eating. She cleaned her breakfast bowl thoroughly.

Mid-morning she had a second breakfast of pancakes. Followed by lots of treats.

At 2 pm she enjoyed her bowl of potatoes and chicken thighs as we all shared a family meal. After that, she had one last wander through her garden.

On the lawn outside the vet’s, she completed her very last bucket list item – white chocolate – although she understood that chocolate was a human treat and not for puppies, those white chocolate wrappers fascinated her, and she would steal them whenever she got a chance.

Pepsi ate her bar of white chocolate one square at a time and hoovered the grass afterwards looking for every last crumb.

From the day we took her home until her last day, she was a blue streak of trouble, and will always remain my problem puppy.

It is with a heavy heart that I let you know that Pepsi is indeed a Problem Puppy.

Four months ago she developed a bump on her skull. At the initial vet visit, we were told that it was most likely a calcification due to her have cracked her head (she’s kind of silly and does stupid things a lot, so it made sense.) If it was something more sinister, they expected it to grow quickly. Between 3 – 6 months, we should see the lump start to go down.

Last month, we sought a second opinion from our preferred vet at the clinic, and he agreed with the first diagnosis – especially given there hadn’t been a drastic change in her bump, which normally would have occurred with cancer well and truly by then.

Pepsi’s bump changed drastically at the four-month mark. And so last week she had X-rays and a biopsy. She has a massive growth between her skull and brain extending into her nasal cavity. Cancer. Pepsi has canine cancer.

As of Wednesday, she is in palliative care. She is happy and has some heavy duty pain meds. The pain meds mean she gets fed a little more often, so she thinks that’s the bee’s knees.

In true Pepsi form, she has a bucket list. Top priority is making her way through the 5kg of roo that arrived in the post on Friday.